A new Twitter account from Daniel Erickson announces his departure from BioWare Austin, where he was Creative Director and lead designer on Star Wars: The Old Republic, the MMORPG that has not proven to be the force in the marketplace that some expected. The reasons for this are not revealed, but along the way he comments on the current focus of commercial game development: "When 90% of the industry is saying the exact same thing (social, mobile, FTP!) a huge number of people are going to lose that race." Thanks MCV.

Carcifier wrote on Oct 4, 2012, 12:47:I love how this guy, the "lead designer", seems to complain about F2P and designing games for money...

WTF was TOR?!?!?!?!?

YOU MADE A WOW CLONE!

That's not a money grab, attempt?

No wonder you failed, you didn't even know what the hell you were making.

Oh I'm sure they knew exactly what they were making however they sold the lie to themselves that their game was a unique snowflake and wasn't like game X because of their story or that it was Star Wars or for whatever reason.

I still personally contend that not only was it too much like WoW, it wasn't ENOUGH like Star Wars Galaxies. Many of us enjoyed a lot of aspects in SWG, even after SOE ruined it. The space combat was still top notch, so was the player housing system. The faction PVP was even LOADS better than what we got with Ilum, especially when you could have AT-STs and Stormtroopers at your command taking over towns and that actually MEANT something.

I played SWTOR for 3 weeks... the final week of the first month I was so burnt out on the broken and downright boring end-game that I was only logging on for guild activities. When I played that Rakghoul rubbish the night before they wanted to charge me, I unsubscribed in disgust.

Meanwhile with GW2, six weeks later and I'm still playing it like a crack addicted monkey even at level 80 because I've only explored 42% of the huge game world, haven't collected all the armor/legendaries I want, I have a ton of alts to level because I love how different the classes feel, and I love WvW every time I step foot in it and this is a game I don't have to feel shamed into playing because of a subscription fee. There are still bugs with GW2 and the "personal story" wasn't presented as well as SWTOR, but it's SO fun to just PLAY, SWTOR was only enjoyable to WATCH.

I know, but come on... DA:O was fucking AMAZING. I mean, that's likely in my top 5 RPGs of all time, so if enough of that team remains, and EA's influence can be kept to a medium-or-less degree, and Mike Laidlaw gets the Nigerian Ass Flu for two years so he can't fuck shit up anymore, there's a CHANCE DA3 will be good.

NegaDeath wrote on Oct 4, 2012, 12:40:I've always felt ME1 was far more ambitious. They looked at the elements that didn't work well in it (Mako, inventory, etc) and gutted them completely rather than trying to fix it in ME2, that always felt lazy to me. So while ME2 was a tighter experience it was so much shallower. Still enjoyable though.

Exactly! That's a recent Bioware problem in general, really frustrating. They did the same thing in DA2. Very often they will just ignore the obvious middle ground and scrap an interesting gameplay system.

Creston wrote on Oct 4, 2012, 12:35:Oh, I'm not buying it day one. Bioware has long since lost that privilege from me. It can wait until people whose opinions I trust have said that it's really good, or until it's on sale for 5 bucks. (which is how I got DA2.)

Creston

And also that they played it through to the END. Wink wink.

Agent.X7 wrote on Oct 4, 2012, 12:30:Yeah, the combat in ME1 was pretty dodgy and there was a lot of stupid shit like 1000 types of ammo but I felt like ME2 was a step back in so many other spots that I preferred the first game. The third game manages to be an effective middle ground between the two but still sits too close on to cover shooter for my liking. ME1 was just a remarkable little game that oozed atmosphere. It really hit that space opera vibe perfectly, felt like playing a sci-fi series from the late 90s.

I've always felt ME1 was far more ambitious. They looked at the elements that didn't work well in it (Mako, inventory, etc) and gutted them completely rather than trying to fix it in ME2, that always felt lazy to me. So while ME2 was a tighter experience it was so much shallower. Still enjoyable though.

ME3 multiplayer using big ME1 style maps and vehicles would have been much more fun than horde mode.

Agent.X7 wrote on Oct 4, 2012, 12:30:I loved DA:O. DA2 was disappointing. I actually liked the combat better, but not the crazy appearing enemies. other than that, the game was ridiculous in its use of the same art assets over, and over, and over, and....Not to mention the small scope of the game compared to DA:O.

Oh dear, DA2. The combat was certainly the highlight although I hated all of the dumb additions like characters teleporting around, making enemies erupt in ridiculous fountains of blood and gibs. The story, characterization and dialogue were ranged from ok to awful, sometimes in the same scene. It is one of the most wildly inconsistent games I've ever come across and definitely one of the laziest. I have no idea how they thought they could get away with the area repetition, it was obnoxious and insulting as a consumer that they went ahead with that.

Hell, one of the big prerelease claims was that because it was just going to be set in a single city that would mean more detail, nuance and changing background as the story progresses. Despite having a timeline and a single setting Kirkwall still manages to be a bland mess that never really changes. Dark Town. Seriously, Dark Town! The kid at the McDonalds drivethru has more creativity.

Mass Effect? Pretty good. ME2 was not as good, and I stopped playing like halfway through.

Yeah, the combat in ME1 was pretty dodgy and there was a lot of stupid shit like 1000 ammo items but I felt like ME2 was a step back in so many other spots that I preferred the first game. The third game manages to be an effective middle ground between the two but still sits too far over the cover shooter line for my liking. ME1 was just a remarkable little game that oozed atmosphere. It really hit that space opera vibe perfectly, felt like playing a sci-fi series from the late 90s.

Agent.X7 wrote on Oct 4, 2012, 12:30:Unless DA3 is the critical darling of the year, I won't even bother touching it. I'll wait for Creston to tell us how crap it was and thank God I didn't pay for it. ;D

Oh, I'm not buying it day one. Bioware has long since lost that privilege from me. It can wait until people whose opinions I trust have said that it's really good, or until it's on sale for 5 bucks. (which is how I got DA2.)

I know, but come on... DA:O was fucking AMAZING. I mean, that's likely in my top 5 RPGs of all time, so if enough of that team remains, and EA's influence can be kept to a medium-or-less degree, and Mike Laidlaw gets the Nigerian Ass Flu for two years so he can't fuck shit up anymore, there's a CHANCE DA3 will be good.

Creston

I loved DA:O. DA2 was disappointing. I actually liked the combat better, but not the crazy appearing enemies. other than that, the game was ridiculous in its use of the same art assets over, and over, and over, and....Not to mention the small scope of the game compared to DA:O.

Mass Effect? Pretty good. ME2 was not as good, and I stopped playing like halfway through.

SWTOR made me swear off Bioware for good. Unless DA3 is the critical darling of the year, I won't even bother touching it. I'll wait for Creston to tell us how crap it was and thank God I didn't pay for it. ;D

Tumbler wrote on Oct 4, 2012, 11:08:I can't shake the feeling that EA would rather shut down this MMO completely before they let it go F2P.

After the latest patch 1.4 that completely fucked up the game your feeling is indeed most justified. They seem to be in the process of killing the game right now. There is no other explanation. When you have a game that is losing subs then dropping a game-breaking patch like 1.4 is like the GTFO patch with a kick in the ass to boot.

I know, but come on... DA:O was fucking AMAZING. I mean, that's likely in my top 5 RPGs of all time, so if enough of that team remains, and EA's influence can be kept to a medium-or-less degree, and Mike Laidlaw gets the Nigerian Ass Flu for two years so he can't fuck shit up anymore, there's a CHANCE DA3 will be good.